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Infinite Country by Patricia Engel | Thoughts

   Published : 2021   ||    Format : print   ||    Location : Colombia ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆   What was it about the country that kept everyone hostage to its fantasy? The previous month, on its own soil, an American man went to his job at a plant and gunned down fourteen coworkers, and last spring alone there were four different school shootings. A nation at war with itself, yet people still spoke of it as some kind of paradise.. Thoughts : Infinite Country follows two characters - young Talia, who at the beginning of this book, escapes a girl’s reform school in North Colombia so that she can make her previously booked flight to the US. Before she can do that, she needs to travel many miles to reach her father and get her ticket to the rest of her family. As we follow Talia’s treacherous journey south, we learn about how she ended up in the reform school in the first place and why half her family resides in the US. Infinite Country tells the story of her family through the other protagonist, El

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei


A Thread of Sky
None of them knew how to talk to one another anymore. None of them knew how to admit sadness, or confusion, or hurt, or fear, because it felt like failure, like weakness. Maybe they never had known, not since they were children. Her father's death has ripped them open, and then they'd scabbed over, too fast, their wounds still fresh under a thick, warped cover.

A Thread of Sky is the story of six women - Irene Shen, whose husband of thirty years is killed in an accident four hours after he left her to pursue an opportunity in Maine and she said "Good riddance" in response to him leaving; her three daughters, Nora, who's struggling with commitment issues with a fiancĂ© who cheated on her, Kay, who was tired of the question "Where are you from?" and decided to find out by going to China, and the teenager Sophie, suffering from bulimia and self-image issues; Irene's poet sister, Susan, who doesn't agree with everything Irene does; and their eighty-year old mother, Lin, who has more to her history than she lets on. None of these women really connect well with each other. Their relationships appear to be more obligatory than warm. Now Irene wants to change all that and bring the family closer. And her solution to that is to go on a tour to China - all six of them. Except no one's really interested or enthusiastic about it.

And so the six set out on this package tour, in the process visiting many "must-sees" and confronting each other about their personal issues. Over the next several pages, we come to know their weakness, their similarities and differences in opinion, their past scandals and secrets, and their love lives.

This book was beautiful! I was already sold by the very description - I've previously read and loved books that were told from the perspectives of many pivotal women characters (The HelpBased upon Availability, The Weird SistersThe Four Ms. Bradwells), so I knew that A Thread of Sky was going to be yet another book that I'd enjoy. True enough, I loved getting into the "skins" of these six women. Except for Susan, whose character I found too flat and one-dimensional, I loved every other central character in this book.

The strength of this novel lies in its characters. I loved it that even the supporting characters were well-portrayed, with their tiny flaws and standout characteristics coming through in the beautiful prose. Irene clearly had a difficult life. All six women have felt the pressure to perform. Lin Yulan, having been a revolutionary in her youth could tolerate no weaknesses in her daughters. She would push them to aim for the sky and beyond. Irene has been determined not to be like her mother to her daughters, but the pressure to perform is still felt on the fringes. Their failures and troubles in their marriages also show up in the girls' relationships - the insecurities, the difficulties with trusting someone, the struggle to say "yes".

Camilla GibbI found that I could most connect with Nora. Nora, who's hesitant to slow down for even one minute in her high-powered Wall Street job on the trading floor. A lone woman among so many men. Always on her toes. Nora worries all the time about her fiancĂ© cheating on her, even though he loves her so much and wants to marry her. Eventually he does, and it breaks something inside her. I couldn't relate much to her sister, Kay, who wanted to address her identity issues by going straight to the mainland and living among the very poor people. I guess it's because I don't think it's necessary that you need to live really poor to understand a country well, when a country is a potpourri of all kinds of people, that one sect alone doesn't personify it.

On the other hand, Irene's feelings really made me feel sad. No matter what she did, it was never enough for her daughters or her mother. She really wants to bond with her family, but she doesn't seem to be doing it the right way. Eventually when she says, "You just want to take a stand against me", the poignancy of her situation is all the more hard to absorb. Her mother, Lin, yearned for both her daughters to have a "fire" within themselves, and when they don't seem to stand up to her expectations, she marks them as "fools". Whereas her son, who has never had any ambition doesn't ever incur her wrath. Of course, there's an explanation for that at the end of the book, but I still chalked it up to the highly patriarchal society that most Asian countries encouraged.

This book is definitely a great read for women. The difficulties faced by Asian women brought about by their upbringings and cultural beliefs, the problems they faced simply because they were women were nicely tied in with the narrative without appearing planted for dramatic effect or plot control purposes. It also raises a lot of questions, primarily that of whether people are really that different because they look different. As Kay says many times, it's unnerving to be asked time and again about where her home is, when the answer is Brooklyn. How does one even begin to contemplate an answer to such a question? Just because someone looks Asian? The book also wonders whether there is any purpose to preserving history when "Those who remembered would always remember. Those who didn't would never understand."

TLC Book Tours
I was very fascinated by the tour that the women undertook. It felt very realistic, almost as if I was a part of the tour as well. In the afterword, the author Deanna Fei mentions that she did undertake such a tour with her sisters, mother, aunt and grandmother, which I guess made the description of the tour all the more realistic. Overall, this is a really beautiful read. It's a wonderful window into modern-day China, and in the end, it really makes you want to go on one such a tour and see the places that this book visited.

I received this book for free from the publisher via TLC Book Tours.


Comments

Misha said…
I love books told from women's perspectives - it makes them more relatable. I already feel bad for Irene and Nora, just by reading your review. I am glad to hear the book has also tackled issues abut identity and culture.
Swapna said…
This sounds like a very interesting book - I hope to get to it soon!
This sounds wonderful! I too love stories told by different women. It sounds like this would make a great book club read.
hcmurdoch said…
New rule: Aths isn't allowed to read any more good books. My TBR list is just getting too huge! :-) Great review and this one sounds like a wonderful women's book and one that I'd really like. Thank you!
This sounds like one of those books that will stay with you for a long time, one that you think of at random times because it was just so relevant. (Does that make sense?! I'm not sure I'm getting it out right ...)

Thanks for being on this tour. I'm recommending this book to my book club - I hope they take me up on it!
Juju at Tales of Whimsy... said…
It sounds reallly good. Great review.

Btw, thank you soooo much for your sweet words and concern :) *hugs*
Darlene said…
I really loved that this novel made me feel as though I was on a journey with the women as well. It was very descriptive that way and I liked that. I also liked Nora although I think I related more to the youngest more for some reason that I'm not able to pinpoint. It was interesting though to read how the issues with one generation just seem to tumble down the hill through to the other generations, isn't it?
Athira / Aths said…
I hope you get to read this one sometime. The issues identified are very universal and the women characters very strong!
Athira / Aths said…
I hope you enjoy it too!
Athira / Aths said…
I believe it is. I attended a Deanne Fei event online a few days ago and loved the discussion that this book generated!
Athira / Aths said…
Haha! I love it when I can get someone to read a book I loved! And to get awesome recommendations from others. Book blogging is so rewarding!
Athira / Aths said…
You're welcome, Juju! I hope everything's going well in your life.
Athira / Aths said…
I sure hope your book club will read this! I can't wait to hear what you think of it.
Athira / Aths said…
That last point you mentioned about how issues and their effects just keep being felt down the generations is so true. It's amazing how that happens, right? You want to be so different from your parents that you never get to because you grew up under them or you are so unlike them and can never be like them.